The cloud has no silver lining & it lost your data

It’s Monday and the day brings a brave new world for the Express-News and mySA. A lot of co-workers left Friday, victims of a newspaper industry that’s being kicked in the junk by recession, declining ad sales and shrinking circulation. Corporate has a plan and the editors have a plan to fix this.

I have a plan, too, and mine’s better. I’ll pitch it in the afternoon blog.

Meanwhile, things happen….

March MadnesszzzzzzzThe most exciting time of the year — March Madness — for the dullest game imaginable — college basketball — continues without UTSA’s women’s team. The Lady Roadrunners were kicking the crap out of highly-ranked and No.2 seeded Baylor for most of the game before losing 87-82.

On the women’s side, Baylor and four other Big XII teams — A&M, Kansas State, Iowa State and OU — are still among the 32 teams in contention. On the men’s side, it’s down to the Sweet 16 and three Big XII teams — OU, Mizzou and KU — are still in the hunt.

For those of you who don’t watch a lot of college basketball, it looks like a bunch of NBA players got drunk and went to the gym — they miss open shots, blow east lay-ups and commit a lot of reach-in fouls. March Madness — come for the drama, stay for the crappy basketball.

There’s not much Schok can do about it. Sure, he’s a public figure and there’s a free press, but the real reason he’s helpless to stop it — he’s a congressmen, and they can’t do anything right.

Dark CloudsSounds like a rain headline, and in a way, it is. Many of us rely on the computing cloud, i.e. remote servers, to store data. The idea is that data stored “in the cloud” can be accessed anywhere. The cloud is built on the premise of reliable companies storing data. When someone screws up, people are going to get angry. And according to Twitter traffic today, that’s what happened.

Steve Kroft will not be audited by the IRS this yearThe 60 Minutes co-host took it easy on President Obama, as do most interviewers, on the show Sunday. Kroft was clearly charmed by the president’s warm smile and calming demeanor. Let’s be blunt. Anyone else in that situation — riding herd on an economic package that no one likes, which was crafted to fix a tanking economy, and fresh off his Special Olympics gaffe — would have been ripped a new one. The closest Kroft got was questioning Obama for smiling during such a horrific time for the country. Even Old Man Wallace’s questions would’ve beaten this guy senseless. Guests get tougher questions on the Muppet Show.

I think this will work. The word “toxic asset” scares off sane people. But these investors are the same dummies who paid for overpriced paper to start with, and so they’re clearly not financial geniuses.